"On Target Killer Profiles! Not affiliated with A.I.M." — I.M.P.
The Institute for Mercenary Profiling (I.M.P.) is an organization that allows commanders to contract the exact personnel they need. Its first appearance is in Jagged Alliance 2. All they have to do is input their requirements and they are given a list of compatible mercenaries from their database.
The player uses the I.M.P. site to build a custom mercenary character for use in the game. The commander can only do this once and the whole process costs $3000.
I.M.P. mercs have no upkeep cost over the course of the campaign, and hold no relationships with any and all other mercenaries and recruitables. It is loosely implied that the I.M.P. merc functions as the player's in-game avatar or stand-in (also known as AE = Alter Ego), though there is no penalty if an I.M.P. merc is killed, and an I.M.P. merc can be fired at any time without consequence, fanfare or fuss.
This concept is not held fast to, however, as the I.M.P. mercs will speak directly to the player, addressing them as "Commander", during the game's ending sequence.
If you ignore I.M.P.'s offer, in a few days, they'll send you another letter with manipulatory language trying to persuade you. Since it's an affordable price for a major gain in the early game, there's really no reason to not take them up on their offer.
Creating mercenary[]
Jagged Alliance 2[]
An email from I.M.P. is one of the first messages the player finds in their email inbox. Reading the message allows the player access to the I.M.P. website in the "Web" section.
On the homepage is a prompt for a code (given in the email received earlier) that will allow the player access to the site's features. The code is XEP624. Enter it and click "Begin" to proceed.
The profiling process takes you through several pages of forms and questions, the end result of which is the creation of your customized mercenary.
Basic information[]
You must provide basic information about your character (name, optional callsign and gender).
Name: Character's Name
Nickname: Nickname or "callsign" for your character that is displayed in-game. If a Nickname is not entered, your character's first name will be used.
Gender: Male or Female
Personality Quiz[]
The personality quiz contains 16 different multiple-choice questions. Your answers to these questions will be used to determine your custom characters's skills, attitude and personality traits. For example, a custom mercenary may get night ops/stealth skills, an aggressive attitude and a psychotic personality trait.[1][2]
All the resulting attitudes and personality traits will be mentioned in the e-mail you get on the third day.
Question 1 - 1. Martial Arts (male) / Ambidextrous (female) 2. Loner 3. Hand to Hand combat 4. Lock Picking 5. Throwing 6. Optimism
Question 2 - 1. Teaching 2. Stealth 3. Psycho Personality 4. Friendly personality
Question 3 - 1. Lock Picking 2. Arrogant 3. Stealth 4. Normal personality
Question 4 - 1. Automatic Weapons 2. Friendly Personality 3. Normal Personality 4. Asshole 5. Loner
Question 5 - 1. Coward 2. None 3. Aggressive Personality 4. None
Question 6 - 1. Coward 2. Night Ops 3. Claustrophobic 4. None 5. None
Question 7 - 1. Electronics 2. Knifing 3. Night Ops 4. None
Question 8 - 1. Ambidextrous 2. None 3. Optimistic Personality 4. Psycho Personality
Question 9 - 1. Forgetful 2. None 3. Pessimist 4. Nervous
Question 10 - 1. None 2. Pessimist 3. Asshole 4. Nervous
Question 11 - 1. None 2. Teaching 3. Aggressive Personality 4. Normal Personality 5. None
Question 12 - 1. Martial Arts (male) / Ambidextrous (female) 2. Knifing 3. None 4. Automatic Weapons 5. Hand to Hand combat 6. Electronics 7. None 8. None
Question 13 - 1. Forgetful 2. Normal Personality 3. Normal Personality 4. Heat-intolerant
Question 14 - 1. Claustrophobic 2. Normal Personality 3. Heat-intolerant 4. None
Question 15 - 1. Throwing 2. Ambidextrous 3. Arrogant 4. None
Question 16 - The answers to this question have no effect on skills/personality.
Attributes[]
You start with 55 points for every attribute and several bonus points. Every attribute can range from 35 to 85.
- Physical attributes, such as health or dexterity, cannot be lower than 35 or higher than 85.
- Skills, such as the Medical and/or Mechanical skills, are set to 0 when you attempt to set it lower than 35. The character cannot use a skill he has a 0 in. You gain 15 bonus points for setting a skill to 0. In unmodified versions of Jagged Alliance 2, there is no way for a merc with skill 0 in any ability to ever improve that skill, so care should be taken when making this decision.
Portrait[]
There are several portraits to choose from. In the mail, I.M.P. will 'analyze' your selection of portrait and voice, but it only decides the body type of your merc.
Male[]
Female[]
Voice[]
Three distinct voices are available for each gender, each with their own personalities, ranging from passive to sadistic.
Equipment[]
Every AE will receive a Steel Helmet, a Flak Jacket and a Canteen.
- If Marksmanship is below 80 the AE will get a Beretta 93R with 3 9mm clips. When it's above 80 the AE will receive a H&K MP5K with 2 clips.
- If Medical is below 60 the AE will get a First Aid Kit. When it's above 60 the AE will receive a Medical Kit.
- If Mechanical is equal to or higher than 50 the AE will get a Tool Kit.
- If Explosives is equal to or higher than 50 the AE will get one TNT with Detonator.
- If the AE has the Skill Knifing, he or she will get a Combat Knife.
- If the AE has the Skill Throwing, he or she will get a Throwing Knife.
- If the AE has the Skill Electronics , he or she will get a Metal Detector.
- If the AE has the Skill Night Ops, he or she will get two Break Lights.
- If the AE has the Skill Lockpicking, he or she will get a Locksmith Kit.
- If the AE has the Skill Hand-to-Hand, he or she will get Knuckle Dusters.
- If the AE has the Skill Stealthy, he or she will get a Silencer.
I.M.P in JA2 Version 1.0[]
In version 1.0 of the game a faulty programming allows the player to max out all status points to 85.
To do this, you will have to go through the mercenary creation process, distribute all currently available status points and then decline the payment at the end of the process. Then go to the options menu, return to the starting screen of the game and start a new game and re-enter I.M.P. All distributed status points will remain while you will be again granted 55 points to distribute. This can be repeated until all status points are maxed out.
Alternatively programs such as "Cheat Engine" can be used to modify the status points at the stat point distribution screen. This allows you to input any value from 0 (min.) up to 100 (max.) for all attributes. To do this, simply search for the value "50" in CE, then add 1 point to each of the attributes and check on the CE screens, which values have changed. Double click those and change the value to what you desire (i.e. 100). Then continue with the process and your mercenary will have every attribute at 100. Values above 100 will result in the respective attribute being shown and handeled by the game as if it had 0 points in it. If this happens to the health attribute your newly bought mercenary will appear dead on screen.
Changes in Unfinished Business[]
Activation code: GP97SL.
Voice[]
There is a new voice for both genders.
Personality and Traits[]
Instead of a quiz, traits are instead selected directly. You can choose up to two of available traits. If choosing only one, the character will be an expert (except ones like "Camouflaged" for which that's impossible).
However, when personality is concerned, you are forced to have only normal mercs when you are starting fresh. Otherwise, your I.M.P. merc's previous personality is inherited.
Attributes[]
Every attribute can now range from 35 to 90.
Equipment[]
Every AE will receive a Steel Helmet, a Flak Jacket and a Canteen. In contrast to the original every AE will get a Calico M950, which is completely independent of what Marksmanship the character has. Everything else is as in the original Jagged Alliance 2. As the Player is now able to choose the Skill Camouflaged, the AE will get a Camo Kit, if he chooses to do so. This was already possible in the original version, but the skill wasn't obtainable via the IMP quiz.
Changes in Wildfire[]
Activation code: CIA003.
Personality Quiz[]
Personality quiz has different questions than in Jagged Alliance 2.
Portrait[]
The first and the sixth portraits are gone, replaced with new ones.
Changes in version 1.13[]
The player can choose to create multiple IMP mercs, the maximum number depends on the game setting. The maximum possible is 6, corresponds to the amount of possible voice options.
Following Unfinished Business, there is no longer a quiz. The Unfinished Business' functions are also expanded, now the player can directly choose the abilities, traits, and weakness for the IMP merc.
In addition, the IMP merc's ingame appearance can be modified. This includes the hair and skin color as well as the shirt and pants. For male characters, there is also an option for 'big body' appearance as well as alternate weapon firing animation for such character.
Quotes[]
"I'm not a mercenary, but I play one on TV. IMP's quick and accurate profiling service gave me exactly what I needed...and expected." - C. Brawnson.
"While I found IMP's services tailored to the Merc, technicaly we are still investigating their involvement in alleged ilegal activities." - J. Reneault.